UK market outperforms most of Europe

Posted: 31 Aug 2007 11:04:34 GMT

The UK's housing market is performing very well and new figures show that it is second only to Spain in the Eurozone.

The UK's housing market is performing very well and new figures show that it is second only to Spain in the Eurozone.

Between 2001 and 2006, house prices in the UK increased by 90 per cent, well above the 40 per cent European average.

The only country to perform better than the UK is Spain, where prices increased by an extremely impressive 100 per cent.

In the last year, UK prices performed fourth best overall, registering growth of 13 per cent, while the likes of Spain (14 per cent), France (15 per cent) and Belgium (18 per cent) did better.

"UK house prices have risen more rapidly than in its Eurozone neighbours over the past five years," commented Tim Crawford, group economist at Halifax.

"House price growth, however, has slowed in the past couple of years with the likes of Belgium and France recording bigger increases.

"Two of the largest economies surveyed – the US and Germany – are the only ones to have seen a fall in house prices," he added.

Recent figures from Nationwide show that annual house price inflation fell in August to 9.6 per cent compared to 9.9 per cent growth in July.

© Houseladder Ltd